Increasingly, professional services businesses are choosing Google Chrome as their browser of choice. As with all browsers, it’s important to know how to optimize its speed so you can work as efficiently as possible. Here, I’ll outline some tips to quickly speed up your Google Chrome.

Tip 1: Update Chrome

Chrome works best when you’re using the most updated version. The updates typically occur in the background when you close and reopen your browser; however, if you’ve had your browser open for a while, you can manually check to see if there’s an update available. To do so, follow these steps:

Click the three dots (‘More’) in the top right of the browser.

Click ‘Update Google Chrome.’ If you don’t see this button, then you’re up-to-date.

Click ‘Relaunch’

Tip 2: Close Any Unused Tabs

The more tabs you have open the slower Chrome will operate. By closing unneeded tabs, your computer has more resources to use and can work quicker.

You can close a tab by clicking the ‘x’ in the upper right hand corner of each tab. Or, with Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS, you can use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl +w; for Mac the shortcut is: Command + w.

Tip 3: Turn Off or Remove Unnecessary Extensions

Extensions are add-ons you can use to do more with Chrome. But, if you’re not using them, they’re just unnecessary programs that you can turn off or uninstall to speed up Chrome. Here’s how you do it.

Click the three dots (‘More’) in the upper right hand corner of your browser

Navigate to More Tools > Extensions

Turn off an extension by unchecking the box next to ‘Enabled’

To delete an extension, click ‘Remove’

Tip 4: Turn Off Unwanted Plugins on Your Computer

Plugins allow you to do more with Chrome (e.g. view Flash animations or view PDF documents). However, if you’re not using them, you can turn them off to speed up Chrome. Here’s how you do that:

In the Chrome address bar, type: ‘chrome://plugins/’ and press ‘Enter’

Click ‘Disable’

** Note: this feature was modified with Chrome 57; you cannot manage some plugins including Google Widevine, Adobe Flash, or Chrome PDF Viewer. You can use it for other plugins that aren’t automatically installed.

Tip 5: Make Sure Page Prefetch Is On

Turning on prefetch, which are the network action predictions, makes Google Chrome open web pages faster. This feature preloads the links you might open. To check it’s on/to turn it on, follow these steps:

Click the three dots (‘More) and navigate to ‘Settings’

Click ‘Show advanced settings’ at the bottom

In the ‘Privacy’ section, check the box associated with ‘Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly’

Conclusion

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